Post navigation

Manimal: The Movie. Really?

We begin this week’s instalment with some unexpected news: Deadpool was arrested Friday morning on a Sydney train. Yes alright, it was actually a guy dressed as Deadpool trying to raise money for charity, but who the hell thinks getting on a peak hour train covered in weapons is a good idea? Well, apart from Deadpool…

In better news, JJ Abrams released another video promoting Star Wars: Force for Change, but all eyes were on what he was standing in front of – an X-Wing starfighter. Naturally, the internet took to picking at it, querying if it was a Z-95 interceptor (The forerunner to the X-Wing), but it’s been officially confirmed. I might have started shaking with joy, pointed excitedly at the screen and babbled incoherently in shock at the sight of it, but who wouldn’t?

And May the Force be with Y’all!

We also some new footage from Star Wars: Rebels – an extended version of the first trailer, one titled A Look Ahead, which is mostly new footage and features a couple of familiar faces along with a new clip that aired during the Comic Con panel. Pretty snazzy looking show, but I still miss Clone Wars. Marvel will be releasing a Princess Leia comic series and Mark Hamill (Who was at the UK premiere of Guardians) is currently sporting an awesome Jedi Master beard. Beards are good.

This weekend is San Diego Comic Con, which promises all manner of awesome goodies. Ben Affleck’s Bat-Cowl is on display and a new picture of him wearing it has been released. I can’t speak for the rest of the outfit, or his performance for that matter, but that’s a mighty Bat-Chin. Oberyn Martell has been busy pouring beers, there’s the first look at Tracey Island from the new series Thunderbirds are Go and in Verse-shattering news, the original cast of Firefly are reuniting for the online game, with Alan Tudyk voicing multiple roles and Michael Fairman playing Niska. Yes, we we’re doing the ‘Please don’t suck’ dance as you read this and No, you can’t have footage of it.

There’s a couple of Avengers: Age of Ultron concept posters, the first trailer for Lego Batman 3: Beyond Gotham is out and a never shot episode of Batman ’66is to be adapted in the comic series. The episode itself was by writer and legendary cranky pants Harlan Ellison and is said to introduce Two-Face to the series, with rumours saying the producers wanted Clint Eastwood for the role back in the day. We also have the first look at the Blu-Ray box set of the TV show (Due for release in November) and it’s a thing of wonder and glory. And, it comes with toy Bat-Mobile!

If anyone has footage of that, I’ll make it worth your while…

There’s the first teaser for Halo: Nightfall, several new TV series have been announced, the cast and crew of Community have been talking about their resurrection (And giving away free Subway sandwiches) while Benedict Cumberbatch has been trolling people who ask him about Doctor Strange. *whew* All that? That’s just from the first day. Stay tuned next week for even more! Now, we get to all the other news that’s been released this week.

Marvel has announced the release dates for five unnamed films, which has speculators going nuts. It’s expected that one will be Doctor Strange, but all we know so far is that their plan is to release one sequel and one new film per year. (I’m hoping for Squirrel Girl myself) Marvel also announced a third mystery film, set to be released in the slot vacated by Amazing Spider-Man 3, which has been pushed back to 2018, with Sinister Six now set to be released in 2016. Note, despite some rumours, this doesn’t mean it’s a reboot, as some may have suggested, just the last Spidey film only made $700 million, which means of course it was a giant flop. I’ll never understand Hollywood.

It’s been confirmed that Arrow and the Justice League movie won’t be crossing over, though Arrow and The Flash have a crossover episode coming. Two new villains have also been announced for Flash, with Wentworth Miller playing Captain Cold, along with the character Plastique, though we don’t know who’s playing her. We also have the first look at Arrow’s Roy Harper in his new Arsenal costume and it looks good, but why all the laces?

I enjoy the show, but really, that’s what I’m watching for.

Robert Downey Jr might be up for Iron Man 4, the first poster for Ant-Man has been revealed and Simon Kinberg is trying to unravel story of the new Fantastic Four movie. Lucy Lawless has joined Agents of SHIELD in an unknown role, while Gotham has announced that Hugo Strange and Harvey Dent will both be appearing (Both roles are uncast at the time of writing) and Dwayne Johnson keeps dropping hints that he’s playing Shazam.

More pictures from Mad Max: Fury Road have emerged, a new adaption of the Arabian Nights tales is on the way and I for one am hoping that this version will have some actual Arabians in it! (Prince of Persia, I’m looking at you…) The long awaited film of Uncharted will be released in June 2016, with it set to start filming early next year. We’ve the first poster for The Hobbit: Battle of Five Armies, the fifth Pirates film is set to be released in July 2017, the first picture from ‘video gamers must save the world’ film Pixels has been released, with Peter Dinklage’s mullet the star. Hopefully it’ll be fun, but as it contains Adam Sandler, I won’t be seeing it.

Just cast Nathan Fillion or Joe Flanigan, please?

In big TV news, Microsoft closed Xbox Entertainment, which means projects such as the planned reboot of Blake’s 7 are now cancelled. That could be a good thing though – there’s a few shows that should never be rebooted (Red Dwarf, Babylon 5) and Blake’s is one of them. Sadly this also means the planned Deadlands series is gone – I was really looking forward to that. Moving on, Orphan Black is getting a tie-on comic series, Anthony Hopkins has signed on to HBO’s Westworld, and the 200th episode of Supernatural will be a musical. Joseph Fiennes will be playing the title role in Nostradamus, there’s some casting news for the upcoming SyFy series Killjoys and fear not fans, Legend of Korra hasn’t been cancelled, it’s just moving online. It’s expected more news will be released at Comic Con – watch this space!

From the ‘You’re joking, right?’ department comes word that Will Ferrel will be producing a film version of Manimal, the short lived early 80’s show about a man who fights crime using the power to transform into different animals. It’s hopefully third time lucky for Painkiller Jane, with another attempt at bringing the character to the screen, following a TV movie and a short-lived SyFy series, Roberto Orci has told Power Rangers fans not to worry and that he won’t ruin their franchise. There’s the first look at Neil Blomkamp‘s next film, Chappie, Vin Diesel has confirmed both a third XXX film and the long awaited Kojak movie and in really bad news, Tremors is getting a reboot.

Almost every time I’ve worn a kilt, someone has tried that.

Neil Gaiman’s Fragile Things is becoming an off Broadway play, there’s the first look at Elsa in Once Upon a Time and Chris Carter has been talking with Fox about a reboot of The X Files. A new promo picture for Doctor Who has been released and it’s both spoilery and paying homage to a famous moment in the classic series, Steven Moffat still wants Peter Jackson to direct an episode of the show and we have details of the limited edition 50th Anniversary box set. In other news, Peter Capaldi’s first adventure will be getting a limited cinema release, though at the time of writing we’ve no idea about Australian screenings.

There’s trailers for the comedy Space Station 76 and documentary The Death of Superman Lives, a brief promo teaser for Guardians of the Galaxy, which has a brief glimpse of Thanos’ throne and Nebula (Karen Gillan) speaking and a new teaser for Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, which leads me to wonder why is it always hip hop? Can we not have one movie that shows the heroes rocking out to something with guitars? Just once, I’d love to see a fight kick off and something like Toxic Waltz or 2 Minutes to Midnight start up. Is that too much to ask? There’s plenty of geeky metal bands (Blind Guardian wrote an album based around The Silmarillion for crying out loud), so we can’t we metal fans get a bit more love?

I’m not saying replace Howard Shore, but now that you mention it…

We end this week with the next salvo in the eternal war between Britain and France, with a British inventor building what can best be termed a giant fart machine (AKA a valveless engine), to be set up the cliffs of Dover. The machine itself will be disguised inside a giant pair of trousers and aimed at France. Apparently, it’s a test to see if it can be heard over the channel, given the stories that First World War artillery fire could be heard from that distance. Or that it’s an incredibly elaborate way of saying that farts are funny, which is the more likely theory.

Quote of the Week:

Felicity: What were you thinking?

Oliver: What?

Felicity: Over 64 million woman over the age of consent in Russia and you sleep with her.

Oliver: So we’re not doing the “What happens in Russia stays in Russia?”